Originally Posted by
mvoight
You can't, at least technically "throw the ticket away", without now owing AA for the difference between a one way ticket and the discounted roundtrip ticket, assuming the one way ticket to Mexico would have been higher.
You may be successful in ignoring the return part of the original ticket and flying on the new one way ticket, but that doesn't mean it isn't a violation, so if you get caught, then you risk the penalty
Generally, not a huge risk for a one off, but it will be a problem if it becomes a habit.
Bottom line, the official way to do this is to change your current ticket. Anything else might be a violation of the original ticket
So then how would my original question get answered if I do that: If AA is currently valuing my outbound way higher now (by $300+/ticket it seems), would it make sense to change the ticket after flying the outbound if I do not expect the return to go up by that much, or change it now? In other words, would AA look changes after the outbound is flown differently, such as trying to price it as 2 one-ways rather than one, or would it look at it as meeting a roundtrip requirement and just having me pay the difference (if any) between the original return and the new return flight?